Cruise control apparatuses for controlling the current speed of a vehicle at a target speed have been developed in the past. The assignee has proposed a cruise control apparatus including a cruise control unit and a target speed correction unit as an example of such a cruise control apparatus (see Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2006-123586).
In the cruise control apparatus according to Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2006-123586, the cruise control unit controls acceleration and deceleration of a vehicle so as to maintain a predetermined target speed. When release of an accelerating operation by a driver, or reduction in amount of an accelerating operation, for example, release of an accelerator pedal operation, or depress back of an accelerator pedal is detected in a state where the current speed of the vehicle is greater than an appropriate speed for a curved road under cruise control, the target speed correction unit determines that the driver intends to decelerate the vehicle, and updates the target speed of the cruise control to the appropriate speed for a curved road upon the above detection. The cruise control apparatus according to Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2006-123586 can cooperatively and appropriately control the operation of the cruise control apparatus and a safety device when a vehicle is running along a curved road while performing cruise control.